Letters: Valentine’s Day Alternatives

You mentioned yesterday that you have mixed feelings about Valentine’s Day. To be honest, I’m not terribly excited about it. The holiday is a bit like making a mini-batch of no-egg cookie dough to eat when a sweet tooth craving hits: it can sometimes seem like a good idea, but it never feels quite right. (What…you’ve never made cookie dough just to eat? Ok. Let’s just keep that between us, then.)

I get a little celebration’d out by the time VDay hits, with Thanksgiving, your birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, Dale’s birthday, my anniversary, my birthday/Superbowl, etc. That’s a lot of partying, and I love it, but Valentine’s Day just can’t compare.

In case you get your fill of traditional VD activities by the time Thursday hits, I’m sending you a number of non-Valentine’s Day activities to replace whatever Valentine’s Day is supposed to be (something to do with chocolate truffles, I think?) None of these ideas involve heart-shaped food.

First, I’ve got a serious crush on Sarah’s Nine Days of Nice over at Yes and Yes. Her ideas are a great way to spread love in a more meaningful way. I especially love her suggestions to show appreciation for teachers and veterans.

I think Valentine’s Day is also a great time to show yourself some love. Why not focus on personal wellness with The Daily Checklist from Leo with Zen Habits? It includes both practical and rejuvenating tasks, such as going for a daily walk, eating something green, and learning.

I know we both love good TV shows, so why not dedicate Valentine’s Day to catching up on (or re-watching) an awesome show like New Girl, The Mindy Project, or Veronica Mars? While you’re at it, convince your roommates and friends to play True American. In case you or any read has not heard of the game, let’s have the characters of New Girl fill you in:
Jess: “So, it’s 50% drinking game, 50% life-size Candy Land.”Schmidt: “Well, it’s more like 75 drinking, 20 Candy Land, and by the way the floor is molten lava.”Winston: “It’s actually 90% drinking and then it’s got a loose Candy Land-like structure to it.”

(If you do play True American, I want a run-down. I haven’t had a chance to do it myself.)

If you are more in a reality-show mood, I highly suggest the sweet drama of Kings of Pastry on Netflix, which I mentioned in my macaron post. If you do, I’d suggest stocking up on a few french pastries to have on hand when you want to eat everything they show (trust me.) I’ve never been to Baltimore, but a couple bakeries caught my eye while searching the internet for you:

Well, that’s about all I have. I know it’s not practical to accomplish all of these things on one Valentine’s Day, especially if you have class and homework and so forth. So let’s deem this Valentine’s Week to spread out the fun.

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jess + linz

Friends since middle school, we continue to inspire each other to be creative in our big, adult lives. Each season we take on a new theme to guide our crafting, cooking, and creating. We're up for trying anything, and things are bound to get messy. But that's just the way we like it.